The Prodigal Son in English and American Literature: Five Hundred Years of Literary Homecomings

186 Pages·2019·1.11 MB·English

by  Alison M. Jack

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fi
Biblical Re gurations
The Prodigal Son in English
and American Literature
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,22/9/2018,SPi
BIBLICAL REFIGURATIONS
GeneralEditors:JamesCrossleyandFrancescaStavrakopoulou
This innovative series offers new perspectives on the textual, cultural, and
interpretativecontextsofparticularbiblicalcharacters,invitingreaderstotake
a fresh look at the methodologies of Biblical Studies. Individual volumes
employdifferentcriticalmethodsincludingsocial-scientificcriticism,critical
theory, historical criticism, reception history, postcolonialism, and gender
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PublishedTitlesInclude:
JeremySchipper DisabilityandIsaiah’sSufferingServant
KeithBodner Jeroboam’sRoyalDrama
MarkLeuchter SamuelandtheShapingofTradition
LouiseJ.Lawrence SenseandStigmaintheGospels:Depictionsof
Sensory-DisabledCharacters
WilliamJohnLyons JosephofArimathea:AStudyinReceptionHistory
JamesCrossley JesusandtheChaosofHistory:RedirectingtheLife
oftheHistoricalJesus
NyashaJunior ReimaginingHagar:BlacknessandBible
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fi
Biblical Re gurations
GENERALEDITORS:JAMESCROSSLEYANDFRANCESCASTAVRAKOPOULOU
The Prodigal Son
in English and
American Literature
Five Hundred Years
of Literary Homecomings
ALISON M. JACK
1
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3
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Acknowledgements
This book has had a long gestation, and I have been encouraged
along the wayby many people. Colleagues at the School of Divinity,
UniversityofEdinburgh, havebeensupportiveandinterested,fullof
suggestions and ideas. Church groups who have heard me talk about
theparablesandtheProdigalSoninparticularhavebeenkeentoshare
theirinsightswithme,andIhaveappreciatedthisverymuch.
The bookwasfinishedduringaperiodofresearch leave,andIam
gratefultotheUniversityofEdinburghfortheopportunitytobefree
ofotherresponsibilitiesandtofocusondrawingthematerialtogether.
TwoshortperiodsofstudyatWestminsterCollege,Cambridge,helped
toconsolidateideasandfillinresearchgaps,andwereofgreatbenefitin
thefinalyearofwriting.
The editorialteam at Oxford UniversityPresshas beensupportive
andunderstandingthroughouttheprocess,andIwouldliketothank
themfortheguidancetheyhavegivenme.
Thetitleofthebookwasthesubjectofsomediscussion.‘Literature
in English’ seemed to raise unmet expectations, and so ‘English and
AmericanLiterature’wasagreed.Thisshouldnotbetakentodown-
playthetextsfromthefieldofScottishliteraturewhicharesoimport-
ant throughout the book, and I hope my friends and colleagues
workinginthatfieldwillunderstandthebalancingactthathadtobe
struckbetweenfulldescriptionandaworkabletitle.
Mychildren,IainandFiona,havebeenpatientanduncomplaining
whenIhavefelttheneedtopointoutaProdigalSonreferenceinevery
film,televisionprogramme,orbookwehaveexperiencedtogether.As
always,Iowethemmythanksfortheirunfailingresilienceandsense
of fun. Drew Brown was an encouraging and supportive presence as
thebookneareditscompletion.
Finally,IdedicatethisbooktoIanCampbell,EmeritusProfessorof
ScottishandVictorianLiteratureattheUniversityofEdinburgh,who
hasbeenateacher,mentor, andfriend forthirtyyears now,and who
continuestobeasupportiveadvocateofmywork.
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,22/9/2018,SPi
vi Acknowledgements
Excerptsfrom‘CrusoeinEngland’,‘Over,Illustrationsanda
Complete Concordance’, ‘The Prodigal’, and ‘Questions of Travel’
from Poems by Elizabeth Bishop. Copyright ©  by The Alice
H. Methfessel Trust. Publisher’s Note and compilation copyright
©  by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Reprinted by permission of
Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Also published in The Complete Poems
– volume. In the UK, these poems are found in Poems by
Elizabeth Bishop published by Chatto and Windus. Reproduced by
permissionoftheRandomHouseGroupLtd.©.
Permission to quote from the poetry of Iain Crichton Smith has
beengrantedbyCarcanetPress(<http://www.carcanet.co.uk>),andis
acknowledged with gratitude. The lines quoted are all from Iain
Crichton Smith, New Collected Poems, edited and introduced by
MattMcGuire(Manchester:CarcanetPressLtd,).
‘Never Go Back’ by Felix Dennis, taken from A Glass Half Full
(Hutchinson, ), © Felix Dennis, is reproduced by kind permis-
sionoftheFelixDennisLiteraryEstate.
A short section of Chapter is adapted from my article ‘Henry
James’s“TheJollyCorner”:RevisitingtheParableoftheProdigalSon
(Luke .–)’ in Journal of the Bible and its Reception, vol. .
():pp.–,andisusedwithpermission.
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Contents
. ReadingtheProdigalSon 
. TheProdigalSoninElizabethanLiterature 
. TheProdigalSonandShakespeare 
. FemaleVictorianNovelistsandtheProdigalSon 
. TheAmericanShortStoryandtheProdigalSon 
. ProdigalMinistersinFiction 
. TheProdigalSoninPoetry:ElizabethBishop
andIainCrichtonSmith 
. Conclusion 
Bibliography 
Index 
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1
Reading the Prodigal Son
‘Prodigal’isanadjectivewithachequeredpast.ItsLatinrootisprodigus,
whichdenotesalavishnesswhichismorallyneutral.IngeneralEnglish
usage,stronglynegativeconnotationsattenditssenseofwastefulsquan-
dering. However, more recently, ‘prodigal’ has cut loose from such
negativity to take on a much more positive understanding which
includes waywardness, perhaps, but more strongly still, a willingness
toseek out adventure, even self-fulfilment,and a certain generosity of
spirit.Today,thewordismostoftenusedinthecontextofJesus’parable
aboutafatherandtwosons(Luke:–),theyoungerofwhomis
givenstarbillinginthetitle:itis‘TheParableoftheProdigalSon’ in
common English usage.1 This son is often simply referred to as ‘the
Prodigal’, and a negative judgement is certainly implied by Jerome’s
reference in the fourth century CE to the parable as a story about the
contrastbetween‘theprudentandprodigalsons’.2WhenIhaveintro-
duced the parable to students in my Bible and Literature classes,
1 Themostsignificantearlyassociationof‘prodigal’withthischaracterinan
EnglishtranslationoftheBibleistobefoundintheGenevaBible,whichwasfirst
publishedwithboththeOldandNewTestamentsin.Heretheparableis
introducedinthetextastheparable‘oftheProdigalSonne’,andthepageheading
repeats this, although the word is not found in the story itself. The same page
headingwasusedintheKingJamesVersionoftheBiblepublishedin,sealing
the ongoing connection between the parable and the prodigality of the younger
son.Thehistoryoftheword’sassociationwiththeparableischartedindetailin
EzraHorbury,‘AristotelianEthicsandLuke:–inEarlyModernEngland’,
JournalofReligiousHistory.(June):pp.–.
2 Jerome, Lives of Illustrious Men, ch. , quoted in Amy-Jill Levine, Short
Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (New York:
HarperCollins,),p..